A Sense of Doubt blog post #1970 - Crushing hard - a writing self-inventory

A Sense of Doubt blog post #1970 - Crushing hard - a writing self-inventory

Another of the school posts.

This one is a writing self-inventory.

This time I will paste the assignment instructions at the end, so as to more quickly get to the content.



MY SAMPLE: Writing Self-Inventory Discussion Assignment

- THE PAST -

I have probably always been telling stories. My earliest play time featured elaborate stories. I had to populate my own world as I was an only child until I was seven years old. But I distinctly remember writing my first “official story” in my new yellow spiral bound notebook in fourth grade about Conan the Barbarian, as I was a fan of the Marvel comics featuring him, even though I had yet to read a single Robert E. Howard story.

From then on, I filled many notebooks with stories, novels, ideas for stories and novels, drawings, reviews of comic books, and much more.

Though I have written all kinds of things, my main interest is in fantastic fiction: speculative fiction, fantasy literature, horror fiction, thrillers, and comic books in various styles and genres.

This is an abbreviated history of my writing because, you know, my time and your attention span. And so, a few highlights.

- In high school, I wrote a satire based on the Wizard of Oz based on the cast of a play I was in at the time. I printed and distributed it, and people loved it.

- I wrote a serialized story about magic and magicians in the little village newspaper that agreed to let me write a weekly column.

- Once I played Dungeons and Dragons for the first time, shortly after it came out, I was obsessed and wrote many rules and adventures, including a Christmas-themed exploration of Santa Claus’ castle at the North Pole for the Fellowship of Lankhmar, the gaming club I ran as an after school activity.

- In college, I discovered poetry, mainly because girls liked poetry and I liked girls. I do love poetry for its self, but I will be honest about what really motivated me in the beginning.

- As a college internship, I worked at Marvel Comics and edited and revised some stories published in Epic Illustrated, Marvel’s answer to Metal Durant known in American as Heavy Metal.

- I studied fiction and poetry in both my undergraduate and graduate years under over a dozen different writers, whose name I would list for my own memory, but they would not mean anything to you (and I am going to share some of their work in the class anyway).

- For my MFA project, I wrote a novel based in the world of Star Trek, the original series. Bantam was publishing novels at the time, and it seemed like a good market. Star Trek: The Next Generation was very popular and soon two more shows would follow shortly after I finished the book. An agent took me on. This book and a teen romance I had written were seriously considered by publishers before being rejected.

- I wrote fan fiction about the DC superhero world, mostly the Teen Titans. I am a huge fan of the original Robin, Richard Grayson, now Nightwing. In fandom, this is known as being a Wingnut. I also had a huge crush on Donna Troy, Wonder Girl.

- After the Trek book was rejected, I started a series of other projects that have never been finished, including an epic fantasy series that blends cyberpunk and sword and sorcery, a horror/urban fantasy novel set in Northern Michigan, and tons of short stories and poems.

- I have published all sorts of things. My story “600 Cows” was published in an anthology of new writers and vetted by editors at top literary magazines, like the Michigan Quarterly Review (MQR).

- I have taken more creative writing classes than I have taught.

I have that MFA thing in fiction writing. I have shared stories and critiques in my online and live writer’s groups. I have made money from things I have written. And I do that daily blog at SENSE OF DOUBT via Blogger.



- PRESENT -

In addition to the unfinished things mentioned previously, like the cyberpunk and sorcery novels, I am currently at work on a novella about a future pandemic, just like about three million other quarantined writers and would be writers. I like my idea, and it has expanded to other story ideas set in the world that will produce shorter works.

I have other short stories burbling on my stove as well as a comic book and a thriller, set in Kalama.

I am enrolled in a Master’s Fiction Sackett Street Writers Workshop led by Jensen Beach.

- THE FUTURE -

All those things I mentioned that I am working on.

I really want to finish and publish a novel, and I really want to publish comic books, either as work-for-hire on a thing I don’t own (like Daredevil) or on a thing I own myself, like an idea I have for a story about a young girl who creates a role playing game to keep in touch with friends around the country that has special powers based on ley lines and alchemy. I got the idea from the girl who convinced Steph Curry and Under Armour to put out kicks for girls:

A Sense of Doubt blog post #1428 - Girls also want to rock a pair of kicks

I have some other things in the works that I have not mentioned, such as a superhero satire a la Discworld called POP and a survival guide for living in a world in which vampires have taken over the government.



- WHAT ARE YOU LIKE AS A WRITER? -

I started with pen or pencil and paper on ruled line paper in spiral notebooks. Throughout college, the poems and story ideas went into smaller journals with hard covers or leather covers.

I got a manual typewriter in seventh grade and an electric typewriter as a high school graduation present. I started using the computers at the college I attended that I could not take home and were really monitors connected to an inter-campus network called the Vax.

Eventually my father brought a Compaq “portable” from work and soon I graduated to my first desk top with the big five inch floppy disks. Though I still did some planning and drafting on paper, I almost exclusively did most of the actual writing at the keyboard, and that’s continued through many computers until today.

I have some stuff in Google Drive, but I do not like to write in that platform and only do so when I need to due to access issues. I am still using the same word processor I adopted early on, not the first one, but the second: Corel’s Word Perfect. It’s comfortable for me, and I think writing is all about what makes us comfortable.

I still like to save an actual file on an actual hard drive inside my machine and then transport back up copies to other machines as well as to Google Drive and another online back up storage I rent.

I think best at a keyboard, though first poetry drafts still seem to be better in notebooks.

I like to make notes, especially for stories, as often, what I am doing requires world building, much of which must be done first. I like to write in pieces. Sometimes when I have an idea for the beginning I start with it. Other times if I have a good scene in mind or a sequence of dialogue I just sketch those out. I can always string together what I do in pieces because, you know, I DO NOT HAVE RE-TYPE IT every time I make a change!! :-)

I let trusted readers read things if I have trusted readers handy.

I revise things often and all the time. Nothing ever feels finished, but occasionally, it feels good enough to show people.

I am stopping this part here because I want to do more explanation of process later. I am fascinated by process. How do others achieve their work goals. I have some stuff on my blog about other people sharing their work process. I will try to collect it intelligently to share with you.



- WHAT ARE YOUR PASSIONS? -

I could go nuts with this one, and I hope all you do. I am going to hit highlights only and restrict myself to a very few things for brevity to spare you a book and because I could spend hours writing this part, and as you know, I have things to prep. :-)

I have always liked writing about taboos. I like to push the envelope. I like to make people face difficult questions. I like to break molds and embrace uncertainty.

I am a big fan of Jungian Psychology, and so I like to have the meanings of archetypes and the process of individuation under the surface of the literal level of my things.

Currently, I am fascinated by new language that we’re creating for our ever increasing digital, bit-mapped, electronic world.

I am very interested in surveillance society and dystopias.

I am trying to create a magic system that makes sense for my fantasy novel series.

I like feminism but prefer to say humanist. I am an advocate for many social justice things, especially anti-racism, anti-misogyny, and alliance with LBGTQ communities for equal rights for everyone.

But I am a cys-white, middle-aged dude and so there’s al those invisible privilege things that I am still working through. If you find it endearing and sweet and not creepy and gross, I freely admit to having crushes on Nnedi Okorafor, Marjorie Liu, Cory Doctorow, Seanan McGuire, and Warren Ellis. Just speaking of writers. And that's just the short list. I have always found crushing hard on people to be inspirational.

DISCUSSION: Let’s Talk About Writing!

Writing Self-Inventory Discussion Assignment

In detail:

Create a post for this discussion of any length, as short or as long as you feel it needs to be that details your past, present, and future as a writer.

- THE PAST: What have you written before? When did you start? Have you written creatively? What types of things? Have you had classes or education in writing, especially creative writing?

- PRESENT: Are you writing anything right now? What is it or what are these writing projects? Tell us as much as you wish about them.

- THE FUTURE: What do you aspire to write. What would you like to write in this class, and in the future beyond this class?

- WHAT ARE YOU LIKE AS A WRITER? How do you write? Paper and pen? Pencils? Notebooks? Digital? Laptop? Google Drive? Do you plan and outline? Notes? Pre-writing? Brainstorming? Multiple drafts? Get opinions from readers you trust? Don’t show anyone? Has your process changed over time? Are you still trying to find the best process for your work?

- WHAT ARE YOUR PASSIONS? Share as much as you want about the things that interest you, things you want to grapple with in your writing, especially things you have not yet mentioned.

First post due by Friday.

Responding posts. Leave two messages. Encourage your peers. Compare process. Ask questions.

Writers, watch your replies for questions.

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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2007.10 - 10:10

- Days ago = 1834 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.

some of my journals and writing stuff - current - 2007.10

MOLESKIN

This site is also about the power of journals and using journals.

FROM -
http://www.seaweedkisses.com/2016/06/the-journal-diaries-james-moleskine-and.html

FIELD NOTES